If you’ve wondered what I’ve been up to lately, I have been involved in taking the American Genealogy Home Study Course from the National Genealogical Society. It’s an intensive 16-lesson course for which they give students three years to complete.

I thought I could finish it in less than one year. Huh! Boy was I naive!

It’s been two and a half years since I started the course, and I’m finally on the last lesson. It’s been a WONDERFUL learning experience. Each lesson concentrates on one particular area of study or a particular record group, such as censuses, vital records, tax records, land records, military records, wills/probates, migration, passenger records, and naturalizations. Each lesson teaches how to use the “Genealogical Proof Standard” for evaluating each source document.  It involves going on a research trip to a courthouse, library, or other source archive to find the information. It usually took me a weekend to do the research for one lesson, and another weekend to put all of the findings together into the lesson submittal. Sixteen lessons = about 32 weekends. It was a LOT of work, but is worth it very much!

As I said, I’m on the final lesson, and am hoping to finish it up in August. Wish me luck!